GameStop CEO Expects PS4 Or Xbox 720 To Launch In 2013, Not Both

GameStop CEO Paul Raines has told Polygon that the specialist video game retailer expects either the PS4 or the Xbox 720 to launch in 2013 with the other console coming in 2014.

“This week, I’m getting a lot of rumors that are very interesting about 2013,” Raines said. “We have not been expecting two more consoles in 2013. We’re expecting Wii U this holiday, another one next year, and another one in ’14. These rumors change every week, but we’re hearing more about next year,” he added.

Analysts generally disagree with this assessment believing that both consoles will launch by the end of next year. “Based on various conversations we had at the conference, we believe it is all but a given that either Microsoft or Sony or both will launch their new consoles next year,” Sterne Agee industry analyst Arvind Bhatia predicted after E3 in June.

However Michael Patcher of Wedbush Securities has today echoed Raines saying that the Xbox 720 will not launch until spring 2014: “we believe that Microsoft could delay a new console launch until spring of 2014 in order to accommodate what is certain to be overwhelming demand among hardcore gamers.”

If true that could mean the PS4 could have a sizable head start, including the lucrative Christmas market, before the Microsoft’s next console hits retailers.

Last week EA label’s president Frank Gibeau said that the publisher believes both the PS4 and the Xbox 720 will be released “in about a year’s time.”

Gibeau also described Sony’s and Microsoft’s next consoles as “spectacular.”

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Besides writing for Leviathyn he also pens news for gameranx and opinion pieces for Koobismo and his blog, The Videogame Dynamic. Believes all game platforms are created equal but some are more equal than others. You can follow him, @StephenDaly_, on twitter.

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